I have always loved Jumpstart Music. I used the game some when I taught public school a little bit and my own kids have enjoyed it a lot. It is a preschool/elementary school game computer game that works on musical concepts. You can adjust the level. You go through music land and complete rhythm, melody, and instrument identification games to collect points. I highly recommend it for anyone learning basic musical grammar!
Everyone did a fantastic job singing, dancing, and playing instruments this week! Thank you parents for continuing to do all these things with your children in class. It is apparent that you have been listening to the CD at home and are getting to know some of the songs.
Below is a copy of the coloring page I handed out in class. When we played sticks along with the song "Palo, Palo" this week I just dumped them all out on the floor! I find this to be a fun way to let the children explore all the different ways they can be played. Some children will play just like you or I do, many will come up with their own ways, some will build with them, and some will just choose to observe. Most of the parents choose to play the stick the way I was playing them. If you did that then you were changing the size of the beat you played with each verse. We played the steady beat, the microbeat (smaller/faster), and the macrobeat (larger/slower). We will work on finding all of these beats in many of the songs we play along with. The quote at the top of your coloring page was about finding and playing these different beats. Most children find the faster microbeat easiest.
We also did some simple improvising with the songs "See How I'm Jumping," and "Hey Diddle Diddle." When you or your child comes up with a new way of moving on the spot to the song "See How I'm Jumping," that is simple improvisation. In the middle of the song "Hey Diddle Diddle" we did some jazzy tonal patterns. Did you recognize any of the tonal patterns recognizable as other songs? See if you can add your own jazzy scat singing or tonal patterns to this song at home.
I also encourage you to adapt songs to use in other ways at home. I changed Little Johnny Brown to "Little Johnny Brown, are there any scarves layin' around? Put them in the bag, Johnny Brown." to use it as a clean up song. Change Johnny Brown to your own child's name and adapt the verse to something you would like them to get done. Singing about it may make the task easier for you and for them!
The book we read along with "Hey Diddle Diddle" was
"Hey Diddle Diddle" By: Eve Bunting
The book keeps the same rhythm as the poem/chant, but adds other animals and instruments. I checked it out at the Lake Wylie Library and it will be back there in a few days for you to get it next!
I have so much fun teaching your children each week! We listened to the Tortoises from the Carnival of the Animals this week. We talked about how slowly they were dancing and used large, slow stretching movements to go along with this music. The children are getting more accurate with identifying instruments and what families they belong in each week! Listen to the Tortoises at home this week and see if your child can identify the animal the music is about and what instruments they hear! Parents can you hear a slow version of the "Can Can" being played? If you want to hear the fast/regular "Can Can" go to the May 22, 2010 posting and click the YouTube link there for it, then come back and listen for the slow version the turtles do here!
We also had a wonderful time dancing to the "Russian Sailors Dance." The children changed the way they were dancing and moving each time the music changed. We had to move with big and small, loud and soft, fast and slow, and high and low movements. Try this out at home with your child. If you don't know how to move to the music just follow what they do, kids are smart! You can listen to the "Russian Sailors Dance" by clicking on the YouTube link under the January 27, 2011 post.
Your children are creating fantastic rhythm patterns each week. I am always amazed at their creativity and willingness to share!
If you have the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" at home, ask you child to sing it to you. We sang the book to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
I had a great time time playing so many different instruments in class this week! The songs we used that were not from the sticks collection were:
Dance with Scarves
Doop Do De Doop by: Blossom Dearie
Our parachute song was the ABC song off of a CD called Jazz for Kids.
Parents you sang a fantastic ostinato (repeated part) for Black Socks!
The play along song was called Hop The Fence.
I am working on putting all of those songs on here so you can listen to them at home. If you liked them you can click the links here to buy the mp3.
The students at the Montessori school have begun studying the families of instruments.
Last week we began this study by reading the book "Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin." Several of the children said they already have this book at home, but if you have not read it I highly recommend it!
We also used our sticks to pretend we were playing violins (string family), drums (percussion family), trumpets (brass family), and flutes (woodwind family).
To further explore the instrument families and other fun music activities at home check out the San Fransisco Symphonies kids site at sfskids.org.
We have continued working on musical contrasts by moving and playing loud and soft, fast and slow, staccato and legato. Click on the links in the Music Together post above to play along or move/dance with some of the songs we are using to learn these concepts.
We are also listening to music from Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals. We are using this music to discuss all of the above concepts; instruments, musical contrasts, and movement. This week we discussed the Lions and Hens and Roosters. Below are links to the book we are using in class as well as the first two pieces we listened to.
Here is some of the music we sang for for the Orff-Schulwerk reunion. I hope you find something helpful here if you teach preschool music! Recordings of Hoe-Down (horse song), Doop-Doo-Dee-Doop (free dance with scarves), Can-Can (great free dance song like Hoe-Down), and many others are on here so you can just click on them in the blog and hear them in your classroom or at home.
I came across another great Jazz CD for kids the other day. I love all the songs on this CD. It is full of fun kids songs performed by great jazz artists. Click the link below to check it out and hear clips of the songs. If you are in my Music Together class you will hear these songs this summer!
Weather or not you are currently enrolled in a Music Together class you can purchase, or download, these CD's that Music Together has out for everyone to enjoy. They are full of exciting songs and beautiful lullabies to sing with your children.
And then you can click here to print out the activity booklet that goes along with your CD for FREE!
I came across this "Baby Loves Jazz" CD the other day and loved the songs on it. This is a kids jazz CD recorded by real jazz musicians. My favorite songs on the CD are their version of "If You're Happy and You Know It," "The ABC Song," and "Scat Song." They also have short tracks on the CD introducing you to each of the instruments in the jazz band! I downloaded it from Amazon (it was a little cheaper there), and am enjoying listening to it at work and at home with my own kids.
Check out this great kids rhythm package that is on sale at West music right now. It's a great deal for a set of instruments the whole family can use together! You can preview the songs on the Go Waggaloo CD at amazon.com by using the links below.
Rubber-Band Banjos and a Java Jive Bass is a book full of ways to mix the science of how sound works with fun do-it-yourself instruments. Have fun finding things around the house and putting them together to make your own instruments.
Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo is a fun train story that goes along nicely with any train song. Have fun watching the train go all around the house and listen to it's whistle blow!
Time For Bed by Mem Fox is a wonderful bedtime story and lullaby. The song that fits with the book is "The Day Is Now Over," by Carl Orff. The song can be found on page 19 in the Orff-Schulwerk Volume 1 book. Time for Bed is a rhyming book that has mother animals saying goodnight to their baby animals.
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins is my favorite book. What's better than monkeys and drums. We used this book at the Montessori school to learn about crescendo (soft-loud) and decrescendo (loud-soft). We discussed the number of monkeys playing drums and how loud they would be. The children played sticks/drums only when they heard the drumming words, "dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum." Ask your children what crescendo and decrescendo mean and have fun exploring these elements of music vocally and with instruments.
Fiddle-I-Fee is the Mother Goose rhyme that we used recently in the Montessori class. We started off with a memory game singing first what the cat says "Fiddle-I-Fee," Then what the goose and cat say, etc. After we sang the song and learned what all the animals say in order we added an instrument sound for each animal. The students had to hold their instrument quietly until it was their animals turn in the song. They did a wonderful job of watching the conductor and waiting their turn in our piece. It was a great beginning experience in ensemble playing!
Max Found Two Sticks by Brian Pinkney is a book we will be reading soon in the Montessori class. This book is similar to the Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb and Fiddle-I-Fee activities where the students have to wait until they hear the drum sound to play. We wait until later in the year for this one because Max plays more complex rhythms to imitate the sounds he hears in the book. A great at home activity to follow up on this book is to listen for everyday rhythms and sounds around you and try to imitate their rhythms.
